Laptop suddenly can't run photoshop

[CoolCat111]

Hello!

For context, I have an XPS 17 9700 Laptop (16GB and i7 processor).

I began using Photoshop to draw for about 3 weeks with no issues besides my laptop getting hot occasionally. However recently, it began to lag heavily and crash. Whenever I get into a drawing with more strokes and layers, the RAM goes up and up until it hits about 50-60% of usage then crashes. My system preference for Photoshop is the RAM can go up to 70%.

Please let me know if you need any more info if you think you can point me in the right direction!

Thank you!

[Peru Bob]

I've moved this from the Using the Community forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums) to the Photoshop forum so that proper help can be offered.

[Ged_Traynor]

@CoolCat111 how large are the documents your working on and how much free space do you have for the scratch disk, it would help if we could see your Photoshop system info, in Photoshop go to Help > System Info, hit the copy button and paste the entire thing into this thread

Photoshop crashes are generally caused by buggy/outdated GPU drivers and or failing hardware

[CoolCat111]

I work mainly in 1920x1080-3840x2160 sizes with 300-350 dpi. I looked at my scratch disk space and it says I have 624 GB of free space.

[Ged_Traynor]

@CoolCat111 you need to post all of the system info, a screenshot of the first bit isn't much use

[CoolCat111]

Sorry about that!

Here is a full PDF of my operating system!

[Ged_Traynor · Accepted solution]

@CoolCat111 you have dual GPU's in your system

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, Driver date: 2023-03-09, Driver age: 9 months

Intel(R) UHD Graphics, Driver date: 2021-06-01, Driver age: 30 months

Do you use the Nvidia Studio driver or the Game ready one, Adobe recommends the Studio version, when installing go to the custom option and then advanced > perform clean installation

https://www.nvidia.com/download/index.aspx

You should also update the Intel GPU driver

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

Take a look here especially sections 6 and 7

https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html

If none of the above helps, try manually resetting your Photoshop preferences
https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preferences.html#Manually
Remember to backup your settings before doing the preference reset
https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/photoshop/using/preset-migration.html

[CoolCat111]

Hello! 

I updated my driver and installed the Studio Driver, I'm not sure which one did it, but Photoshop is no longer freezing up or crashing!

It still uses a lot of memory but I think that's just due to me having a laptop with only 16GB, would you recommend upgrading my GB to 32?

Regardless, thank you so much for helping me with this issue! You're wonderful!

[Ged_Traynor]

"would you recommend upgrading my GB to 32" yes

[jayrphotog]

Let me ask a couple questions about what you are creating.

Are you creating composit images which contain many blended layers?  or are you just drawing by hand and adding multiple layers for your artwork?

I ask because you can always plan to merge finished layers if you are drawing things, but if you are compositing then you may want to keep layers as they are.

you may try to lower the amount of RAM that Photoshop is allowed to use.  And I do not personally have any systems which utilize virtual RAM, but If there is a way to disable adobe from accessing "Virtual RAM" then I would disable that.  Also, make sure that Photoshop is the only ADOBE product running.  I know that having a couple Adobe apps open at the same time can be very taxing on my system.

[CoolCat111]

I draw by hand and i'll be frank, I don't mind merging layers as a go but the system begins to crash even on one layer. it just depends on how many strokes I make.

I only have Photoshop running with the Cloud running in the background.

I'll try lowering the amount of RAM it's allowed to use and see if that helps!